The $100,000 Remicade Infusion…how is this possible?

On April 5, 2014, the NY Times published another article by Elisabeth Rosenthal on the extremely high costs of healthcare in this country. This article focused on the escalating costs of type 1 diabetes care – now in the range of $26,000 per year for medication and equipment. She also told the story of a science teacher who had been getting Remicade infusions for psoriatic arthritis every 6 weeks at NYU – he stopped going when he discovered that his insurance company was paying almost $100,000 for each infusion. As long as the fees paid for virtually all healthcare services remain a secret, this kind of misguided use of insurance premiums will continue. Consumers need access to the fees paid for healthcare services before they receive care. This is particularly important now that 40% of consumers have a high deductible.